


eulogy for the departed

by soletcendre



Category: Hades (Video Game 2018)
Genre: Angst, Angst with a Happy Ending, Canon Compliant, Eventual Fluff, M/M, Mutual Pining, My First Fanfic, Other Additional Tags to Be Added, Pining, Slow Burn, Temporary Character Death, but like its zagreus so he's fine.
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2021-01-17
Updated: 2021-01-17
Packaged: 2021-03-15 07:54:59
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,940
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/28809966
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/soletcendre/pseuds/soletcendre
Summary: diligent and punctual thanatos has built himself a fine reputation in lord hades' realm. his name commands fear and deference wherever he goes.how quickly this façade comes crumbling down at the sound of his love's flight.
Relationships: Thanatos/Zagreus (Hades Video Game)
Comments: 1
Kudos: 88





	eulogy for the departed

**Author's Note:**

> i haven't written creatively in over a year. THEN... i buy hades. i find thanzag. they live rent free in my head. i write things again. SUCCESS
> 
> *** ORIGINALLY TITLED _THE START OF SOMETHING_ ***

If there is anything Death is better at than his job, it is the way he puts up walls. His guardedness rivals the ramparts of Tartarus, or so Hypnos likes to jest.

“Y’know, because you’re so…” Thanatos recalls watching Hypnos scramble through his muddled thoughts for the least offensive descriptor. “On guard! Yeah, that’s the phrase! You’re so on guard all the time. Just like the House wretches and watchmen. You also—H-Hey, wait! Don’t leave yet!”

Thanatos remembers shooting Hypnos a silent glare, sharp as his scythe, before promptly shifting out of the Great Hall. He spends a great time alone after that, not to reflect, but to simmer. He thinks back to that cool anger he felt course through his body, sure as the Styx, as his brother’s words replayed in his mind. 

Maybe he is standoffish, but that’s because he firmly believes it’s the best way to ward off nonsense that would otherwise prevent him from doing his job.

Some idea that is, considering the close company he keeps.

Even though that conversation happened ages ago, it takes Thanatos even longer to release his iron grip on that grudge. Eventually, he learns to brick it off in the recesses of his mind just like the rest of his more complex emotions, and in time, he goes back to feeling a more normal, brotherly aggravation towards Hypnos.

Despite having made something of amends with the passage of time, Thanatos still silently dreads casual conversation with his brother. Things between them are fine when their talks only consist of business. Thanatos doesn’t have to worry about how cagey he acts or how aloof he sounds if the only thing he asks for is Hypnos’ reports. But when matters stray from the formal, as Hypnos is wont to do, Thanatos starts to realize how tall those walls he built really are.

Today, Thanatos returns to the House of Hades for the first time in a long time. Constant death by starvation, frostbite, and hypothermia keeps him collecting tens of mortal souls on the hour, every hour. Lady Demeter has been particularly unrelenting with her storms as of late, and a perpetual winter on the Overworld grows more and more likely as the winds pick up and the snow piles on.

In far less dire but equally as annoying news, Hypnos is behind on his reports again; more so than usual. Thanatos has to cut time out of his packed schedule to hound his brother about his incompetence. He hopes the scolding won’t take longer than five minutes, because after that point, Hypnos begins to doze off and retain next to nothing. And then this trip to the House will have been a waste of his time.

In a pulse of green light, Thanatos appears before Hypnos.

He sighs under his breath at the sorry sight before him, thinly veiled frustration hidden in his golden gaze. He finds his brother snugly curled up in his thick red quilt, bobbing up and down in the air as if in an invisible cradle. A dreamy smile is plastered on his round face, and his hands are tucked comfortably beneath his chin. An ornately embroidered sleep mask sits nested in his head of loose, white curls, which coincidentally obscures his dreaming visage from anyone not within five feet of him at his post in the Great Hall. 

His little brother looks so peaceful that the thought of leaving him alone to sleep almost crosses Thanatos’ mind… Almost.

“Hypnos. Wake _up_ ,” Thanatos hisses between gritted teeth.

Hypnos jolts upright into a much more attentive, far more professional seated position. He blinks repeatedly, not quite registering the world around him yet.

“Hey, hey! Woah, woah, woah, I’m awake. I’m awake!” Hypnos nervously insists with a lazy smile, rubbing the excess weariness from his eyes with his knuckles. 

“Welcome to the House of Hades! Say, to whom do I owe this pleasure?”

“No one of importance, really,” Thanatos deadpans.

Hypnos’ eyes pop open when he realizes who he is talking to.

“Woah! Than! Is that really you? Haha, I mean, of course it is! I know it’s you, it’s just been so long!” he beams up at his brother and clasps his hands together excitedly.

“It’s almost like seeing...” Hypnos leans in toward Thanatos, one hand blocking his mouth from a patiently waiting shade in line off to the right of him. “...A _ghost_!”

Thanatos’ blank and weary stare bores into Hypnos’ eyes, which retain their chipper spark. Thanatos outstretches his gauntleted hand and waits.

“I need your reports from the last three lunar cycles,” Thanatos sighs, irritation creeping up the hollow of his throat. “Now.”

“Oh! Right! Those things. Those arguably very important things! About them, Than,” Hypnos sheepishly readjusts the quilt over his shoulders before picking up his clipboard and quill floating beside him.

“I don’t want excuses, Hypnos. I want results,” Thanatos interrupts, retracting his clawed hand and crossing his arms tightly across his chest.

“Well, see, that’s the thing, Than! I can’t finish them right now! Master Hades has me working overtime here!” Hypnos waves his hands vigorously toward the Pool of the Styx to his right. The blood sloshes, low and lapping, against the stairs. Thanatos looks over the empty pool, and then back at his brother, genuinely unimpressed.

“I see. I didn't mean to interrupt your… excruciatingly hard work,” Thanatos drawls, drumming the fingers on one hand on his upper arm. His eyes flicker back to the pool momentarily, his brows knitting together in aggravation. “You clearly have so much on your plate.”

“Do I!” Hypnos plops a lazy hand on his own head in a slight show of exasperation. “I mean, at first I only had to write down and submit the requests of some shades. I could handle that, but now I’ve got to log all of the Prince’s escape attempts too! And let me tell you, he has done a lot!”

Thanatos’ growing irritation makes it all the more harder for that last bit of information to register. His stony expression drops into something between confusion and anger. A nagging fear inside of him begins to stir.

“Wait. Hypnos. What do you mean ‘escape attempts’?” Thanatos asks, cocking his head to the side.

That is the only question he can muster against the maelstrom of emotions that overwhelm him. Thanatos can feel his head getting lighter with each added thought and every unanswered question swirling around his mind. Zagreus… leaving? For good? Thanatos knows how much Zagreus despised the Underworld, despised his father… but to try and leave? To what end? Where would he even go?

More importantly, why didn’t he say goodbye?

Hypnos mirrors his brother’s head tilt and gawks at him with his mouth agape. “Whaaat? You didn’t know?”

Embarrassment, hot like venom, overwhelms Thanatos, flushing his pallid gray cheeks a deep indigo.

“I… I have been hard at work for several months.” Thanatos shifts his body weight to his other leg uncomfortably in the air, trying to center himself amidst all his confusion and frustration. He desperately tries to ignore the growing, wobbly sensation of a crumbling foundation beneath his feet. 

“You know me. You know what my job entails,” Thanatos continues; the detached tone he often carries in his voice falters.

“Well sure, Than! You’re a busy guy, I know that. I’m just surprised His Princeliness didn’t tell you, is all! I always thought you two were reeaal close!” 

Hypnos doesn’t mean it like an insult, but the truth of it sure stings like one.

“That makes two of us,” Thanatos replies weakly, turning his head solemnly towards the bubbling red pool to his left. “So Zagreus is… gone, then? For good?”

“Well, not exactly,” Hypnos flips through his clipboard, back about four pages of parchment before he starts reading things off. “He used to end up back here quick and often. Slammed into columns by Louts, ripped to shreds by Numbskulls, vaporized by a Doomstone, pretty gruesome stuff!”

Each description sends a pang of fear through Thanatos; takes the air out of his chest like a battering ram. The muscles in his jaw tighten as he closes his eyes and tries to wipe the image of Zagreus’ grisly deaths from his mind.

“Get to the point, Hypnos,” Thanatos snaps and he whips his head back to face his brother. His patience fights a losing battle with the hurt in his heart.

“He’s been lasting a lot longer out there as of late!” Hypnos nonchalantly flips to the front page, tapping a particular line of documentation as a sign of confirmation. “See, says here he made it all the way up to the lava flats of Asphodel five times! Last try, he went toe to toe with the skeletal remains of the hydra that Heracles guy slayed! How about that?” 

How about that, indeed. The Zagreus he knew never worked hard a day in his life. Most of Thanatos’ memories of Zagreus are ones of him lazing about, being late for work, or loudly bickering with the Lord of the House. Patient and invested were not words even remotely related to the prince. Yet here he is, as Hypnos claims, dedicating these last few months to slaying his father’s forces... on some impulsive wile, if Thanatos is to hazard a guess as to why. 

It’s quite impressive what Zagreus can achieve when he sets his mind to something.

“He’s a fool. That’s what I think about that,” Thanatos nabs the clipboard out of Hypnos’ hand to examine it himself. 

Attempt #20, perished in Tartarus. Doomstone.  
Attempt #21, perished in Asphodel. Megagorgon.  
Other notes: Fury Megaera slain.  
Attempt #22, perished in Asphodel. Wave-maker.  
Other notes: Fury Megaera slain.  
Attempt #23, perished in Asphodel. Lernaean Hydra.  
Other notes: Fury Megaera slain.

Thanatos’ eyes scan the columns of red ink on the parchment in disbelief. He doesn’t want to believe what he reads, but he knows he has no choice. This piece of parchment is branded with the sigil of the God of the Dead himself. This scroll, blood-bound to Lord Hades (and to Zagreus, by proxy), fills itself out. Hypnos just has to log what’s written after the day is done. So what’s written here is how it happened.

“This… it can’t be right. Zagreus... defeated Megaera?” Thanatos mused to himself, the disbelief audible in his voice. Defeated her not once, but thrice, apparently.

Hypnos quickly lifts a finger to his own lips. Thanatos raises his gaze from the parchment to his brother, perplexed.

“I wouldn’t say that so loud if I were you,” Hypnos warns, his eyes shifting from left to right as if Thanatos’ low droning was half as loud as his chirping. Thanatos simply stares at him blankly, trying to mask his unstrung nerves as best as possible.

“Miss Megaera is here— in the lounge, actually! Burning off steam from her last run-in with His Princeliness! I, uh, wouldn’t ask her about it either,” Hypnos rubs a faint mark on his cheek and chuckles nervously, “Insult to injury, or whatever that means.”

“Hm,” is the only semblance of an affirmative Thanatos can muster. 

The shock of Zagreus leaving still hasn’t set in; or at least not in the way he expects it to. Thanatos feels hollow, and so do the words that toll like a siege bell in his mind. Zagreus. Gone. It doesn’t sound right. Just the thought of those two words together leaves a bad taste in his mouth and a burning lump in his throat. 

Zagreus was the only constant Thanatos knew of inside that House, save for the House itself. Hypnos, while usually in the Great Hall, is also prone to long, slumber-filled breaks. Hard to say when he will be present and when he’ll be out cold. Megaera finds herself busy tending to Sisyphus' lashings. While permitted in the House, she spends her time in Tartarus hard at work. Mother Nyx is often outside the House, attending to her duties to the Underworld. He, now that he’s grown, is no longer one of them.

Though Zagreus… Zagreus always made time for him. And the halls are rather quiet this day or night, now that he thinks about it. That should have been the first indication that something was wrong; that he really wasn’t here. Normally Zagreus comes running out of whatever room he’s in at the first sound of the death knell just to say hello. Hearing a “Hey, Than!” from down the hall is secretly what makes his visits to the House so worthwhile. Now that Zagreus has officially taken a stance against his father and is, quite literally, hellbent on leaving... how many more of those exchanges do they have left?

Thanatos wavers in place. He came to the House for late reports, not for uprooting news. He still has so many questions, namely why did Zagreus decide to leave now, after everything he’s already put up with? What was the last straw? 

And better yet, why does _everyone else_ in this damned House seem to know Zagreus is gone except for _him?_

Thanatos feels so paper thin that if Hypnos reached out any closer to jostle him back to the present, the slight breeze from his hand would have been enough to knock whatever brick and mortar there was left around his heart right over.

Hypnos continues to wave a hand in front of his brother’s face until Thanatos blinks back into focus. 

“You alright there, Than? You look a little lost,” he tilts his head to the side, a flash of concern hidden somewhere under those heavy-lidded eyes. He gently takes the scroll back and looks from Thanatos to the group of shades gathered around his post. “On top of that, you haven’t responded to my question in over a minute! I’ve got a line forming here!”

The joke falls short on the shades that sigh and groan, having already been there for hours on end.

“Yes, Hypnos. I’m fine,” Thanatos quickly regains his usual doom and gloom countenance. 

“I simply have a lot on my mind,” he pauses to correct himself, “...A lot of work that our chat has kept me from, that is.”

“Yeah, I figured as much. Could tell you were itching to get out of here! Which is why I asked if you wanted me to leave him a note!”

Thanatos blinks. “Leave who a note?”

“The Prince! I mean, he’s bound to show up back here at some point. Given his track record and all,” Hypnos chuckles, wiggling the paper knowingly.

“Tsch,” Thanatos’ upper lip curls and he can't help but roll his eyes. “If Zagreus didn't wait around for me, what makes you think I’d waste my time reaching out to him?”

“Yeowch! Just thought I’d ask,” Hypnos bats his heavy eyelids, dropping his gaze from his brother to the scroll. He adjusts the quill between his fingers as he begins to doodle on the borders of the parchment. “You know, since you guys are friends and all.”

Here those defenses Thanatos so dutifully built nearly fail him. He almost cracks; almost comes undone. He’s a split second from snapping at Hypnos again, saying no, apparently we are not, since I am not worth consulting in such a brazen decision, or simply shifting away in a burst of green flame in a fit of rage, when his brother’s eyes light up at something on the scroll.

“Wow, would you look at that!” Hypnos raises his eyebrows, his eyes bright and attentive in a split second of clarity. “I’ve never seen one of these things fill themselves out in real time! I’m usually asleep, haha!”

Thanatos, brimming with anger, says nothing. Instead he glares at his brother, waiting for him to elaborate, or to say something ridiculous enough to permit Thanatos to leave.

“Oh! You’re totally wondering what I’m talking about,” Hypnos chirps, turning the scroll to face Thanatos. “Look here! Says the hydra’s been slain.”

Thanatos begrudgingly averts his eyes to the page, watching, in real time, the red ink scrawl the phrase “Lernaean Hydra, slain.” across the empty page. 

“You know what that means: he’s on his way to the fields of Elysium! Lucky him!”

Behind a veil of stoic regard, panic surges inside Thanatos just below the surface. He white knuckles his scythe for a grip on something here; something real.

“You know, he might actually make it out this time," Hypnos' lower lip puffs into a pout. His eyelids start to droop as he continues to doodle on the side of the parchment. "Aw. I was really starting to enjoy our talks, too…”

That taut wire Thanatos so diligently walks momentarily snaps beneath the weight of the thought of Zagreus gone for good. 

An abrupt flash of green light makes Hypnos yelp in surprise, startling him back to attention. 

"Woah! Uh, bye, I guess!" Hypnos calls out to no one in particular before his eyes flutter shut once again. This earns him a few odd grumbles from the slow-growing line of patiently waiting shades. 

Far from the toiling bureaucracy of Tartarus, troubled thoughts land Thanatos in the lush green fields of Elysium. The pull and fray of loosening threads urge him further upward, to the Overworld—to his duties—but he must defy his sisters briefly, and attend to matters more pressing to his heart.

Thanatos, Death Incarnate, the rigid reaper of mortal souls, briefly breaks from his ever-busy schedule with one thought in mind:

He has to say goodbye.

Blood and darkness, where were those Tartaran walls Hypnos claimed he had so long ago?


End file.
